PROJECT HARMONY News:
Sexual violence against children and adolescents is a public health crisis that has been put on the backburner for far too long and has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, lockdowns, increased online activity, economic instability, and other factors intensified the problem. Many children have been hidden from the caring adults, community members, and mandated reporters who could have protected them.
Additionally, children are spending unprecedented time online, increasing exposure to technology-facilitated violence, sexual exploitation, and abuse. Disruptions in routine, isolation, more time spent at home and online, financial insecurity, stress, and anxiety increased the risk and incidents of violence against children.
Project Harmony, one of the largest Child Advocacy Centers in the nation located in Omaha, Neb., is a national model for how advocates in a major metropolitan city broke down barriers and reinvented how to serve children who have suffered abuse through innovative collaboration.
Project Harmony seeks to end child abuse and wants to use April as a month to have a national conversation on lessons learned in Omaha.
Did You Know?
- One in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday.
- 91 percent of Child Sexual Abuse Victims Know their abuser.
- 3.3 million Children witness domestic violence in their homes each year.
- 13 percent of athletes experience one form of sexual abuse at least once as a child in sport. With sport participation levels as they are today, there are an estimated 5.91 million survivors of sexual abuse in sports in the United States alone.
- An estimated 12 percent of child sexual abuse is reported to authorities each year. Studies suggest that as many as 33 percent of victims never tell anyone they were abused. One study found that 60 – 80 percent of victims of childhood sexual abuse wait until adulthood to disclose their abuse. In fact, the average age of disclosure of child sexual abuse in a study of 1,000 victims was 52 years old.
Speak with one of Project Harmony’s national subject matter experts on:
The Top Three Ways Omaha Is Ending Child Abuse:
- Response
- Intervention/Prevention
- Treatment
Learn the Five Steps to Protecting Children:
- Know the Facts
- Minimize Opportunity
- Talk About It
- Recognize the Signs
- React Responsibly
Subject Matter Expert at Project Harmony
Gene Klein, Executive Director
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ABOUT PROJECT HARMONY
Project Harmony is a nonprofit, community-based organization in Omaha, Neb. that has served more than 48,000 children during the past 25 years by providing a child friendly environment in which specially trained professionals work together to assess, investigate, and resolve child abuse cases. In one centralized location, Project Harmony co-houses with Omaha Police Department Child Victim/Sexual Assault Unit and the Domestic Violence Unit, Nebraska Health & Human Services/Child Protection Service Initial Assessment and Child Abuse Hotline, Lutheran Family Services and Child Saving Institute. Project Harmony exists to protect and support children, collaborate with professionals and engage the community to end child abuse and neglect.
